


send me the stars

by cherriesbucky



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, M/M, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Slow Burn, let isa rest 2k18, some OCs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-05-23 22:26:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14942504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherriesbucky/pseuds/cherriesbucky
Summary: One wolfish grin, two sets of bright eyes full of future, and three promises long forgotten met on a walkway in early July.  Their last summer was a summer of youth and a glorious lack of responsibility.  They planned to live it to its fullest.Ten years later, Isa wakes to find a heart - broken, but all his own, while Lea struggles to find his place in a world he never got the chance to call home.





	1. Prologue

The darkness swirls, settles, gathers at his feet, and he clasps the umbrella tightly to his chest. The rain tumbles down in sheets, his cloak soaked, but he refuses to open the umbrella. He watches the darkness in front of him. His eyes focus on nothing. The caverns above howl at him and hurl down their strongest weapons. 

He waits. 

The stillness behind him rips in two, and the darkness disappears, repulsed by the sliver of light that now appears. He turns, expressionless, because he already knows what is about to happen. 

When the other man emerges from the light, he takes a step back. The action is mechanical and not a reaction. The new arrival glances up at the thundering sky, emerald green eyes narrowing, and sighs. 

“I told you’d I’d come,” he says. His red hair hangs limply about his face, and his skin is shades lighter from illness and weariness. He notices the umbrella that he, in his soaked and torn cloak, holds, and smirks. “I hope you didn’t steal that.” 

He says nothing. He thinks of white, of lab coats and gleaming cobblestones, of the spray of water dashing on the concrete borders of a fountain. Something sits on his chest, something makes its home on his ribs and eats at his heart. He stares at the darkness now pooling around his feet once more. 

The red-haired man sighs. The cloak is gone and so are the once tell-tale purple marks. “Isa…” 

Ah, yes. His name. Isa. 

“Isa, I wanna give you time, but you know…” the other man gestures helplessly at the cloak Isa wears. Isa shivers, not from the chill of the rain, but from something far worse. His heart pounds, and with each beat, his stomach burns like acid. “I wanna give you time, but I gotta bring you in. You know that. You…” 

Isa drops the umbrella next to him and steps forward. The darkness hisses at his heels, but Isa ignores the rain and the slinking shadows and takes hold of the other man’s shoulder. Bright green eyes meet him, surprise blossoming in their depths. 

“Lea,” Isa whispers. His voice cracks, throat sore and tongue dry from disuse. His hearts hurts far more. “I want to go home.” Something in his chest hurts, hurts, hurts. 

A moment passes. The rain continues to fall on the earth below their feet. Isa’s fingers tighten around Lea’s arm. Suddenly, Lea’s arms wrap around Isa’s back, slow and soft and tentatively, as if Isa is a snake about to strike. 

Isa’s chest throbs, his ribs cracking. He is blind, but the world is full of color. Red is the color of the sunset, red is the color of blood, red is the color of…

“Let’s go home,” Lea murmurs. His hands slide to Isa’s shoulders, and a moment later, Isa feels the weight of his cloak slide to the ground. His arms hum with an energy he does not quite recognize. 

Red is the color of the sunset. Red is the color of blood. Red is the color of…

The universe tears itself in two once more, the light opening upon a world of earth and darkness. Lea takes Isa’s wrist, red hair spitting water and revelation. 

Isa dares not look back as he follows Lea into the light. The unknown.


	2. Chapter One

“He’s awake,” is all that Even says before he disappears back inside the castle to quickly piling medical duties.

Lea pauses, and Kairi holds back her punch. It’s a truly beautiful day in Radiant Garden – the kind that Lea loved back when he was a kid. Not a single cloud in the sky. Of course, beautiful days usually mean a visit from Yen Sid, whose ideas of ‘a masterful grasp of the Keyblade’ include two hour sparring sessions under his critical gaze, where he likes to pretend that he isn’t paying attention whenever Kairi cheats Lea out of a point.

Lea wipes the sweat running down his brow and frowns at the dirt below him. His bare feet dig into the soft earth, and Lea privately wishes that he’d worn some kind of shoes.

Kairi drops her sparring position, auburn hair swept up into an elaborate mess of braids and buns. Her dark blue eyes peer at Lea, fists clenched at her sides. “Well?” she asks, and Lea glances at her in annoyance.

“Well, what?”

 Kairi’s gaze burns fiercer than Lea’s flames. “Aren’t you going to go and see him?”

Lea looks up at the castle looming before them. Drapes flutter in the breeze, the castle’s residents having decided to open their windows to the warmth of the sun and a light wind. For the last two weeks, Radiant Garden’s played victim to all the fury of the skies, storms striking down trees and rain building moats in the road, and now that the sun is finally out Radiant Garden buzzes with activity.

“Yen Sid’ll pitch a fit.”

Kairi rolls her eyes. “Yeah, right. C’mon.” Kairi gestures behind her, where Yen Sid lounges in a lawn chair near the training pit, clearly asleep. “Can’t believe you’re afraid of somebody who looks like he got thrown into a lawnmower…”

“I’m not afraid,” Lea retorts. The parts of his cheeks where his purple teardrops used to be sting. “It’s just…” he trails off, but Kairi’s face molds into understanding.

“You know, he probably won’t say anything at all,” Kairi says, voice low. “Terra didn’t even talk for a month. He probably doesn’t even remember who he is.”

Lea’s stare digs into the earth beneath him. Something prickles in his chest, but he ignores it. Everything since he got his heart back hurts. “Maybe.”

“I think you should go see him.”

“I don’t…”

“I’m serious, Lea, stop making excuses and just go see him.”

Lea bites his lip until he tastes blood. _Isa stands on the fountain ledge, staring into the water with a kind of intensity that Lea’s never seen before. There is something angry in that look, but beneath the anger, Lea sees determination. The sunlight catches on his hair as he turns, shimmering beneath the sky not with beauty but with venom, and Lea takes a step backwards._ The sun beats down, no longer friendly. One of his ankles blisters ferociously. “Yeah.”

They stand there for a moment, listening to the sounds of the city outside, until Kairi shoves Lea’s shoulder. “Well, whaddya waiting for?”

“I…” Lea pauses mid-sentence, wipes the sweat on his face away once more. “Nothing,” he replies, with a last glance at the castle. A flash of blue appears in one of the windows, disappearing as quickly as it came. Lea’s heart burns in rebellion.

“Nothing,” he says again, and dismisses his Keyblade.

           

They sit in silence, miles of distance between them but only two feet from the rocking chair where Lea sits to Isa’s comforter. Isa folds his hands on top of his lap. He does not know what to say, just that he cannot say it.

 Lea speaks first, mouth pouring words that Isa neither listens to nor understands. He sweeps his tomato red hair behind his shoulders, both of them pretending that Lea’s hands aren’t trembling. The freckles blossoming across his nose stand stark against the pallor of his skin.

“I’m sorry,” Isa says suddenly. His sheets feel sticky against his skin. He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to be apologizing for, just that he’s supposed to say sorry. He’s done something, although he doesn’t know what, something that hurt Lea and maybe someone else.

Lea looks startled. He sits back in the rocking chair, his foot ceasing to _tap tap tap_ on the floor. “What for?”

“I…” Isa pauses. “I… don’t… I don’t know.”

Lea sighs and something opens in the cavern of Isa’s chest. He can’t remember what it is, but it scares him. Someone shoves lightning down his shirt.

“It’s okay, Isa.” Lea’s foot resumes tapping on the floor.

_Guilt._

But Isa knows it’s not okay.

 

That night, Lea beats Kairi three to one, and Yen Sid only peers over his glasses once. After they’re done sparring, as Kairi trudges back to her room in the castle while cursing, Yen Sid pulls Lea aside.

 “If I may,” he begins, “you seem troubled.”

Lea bites back a _well no shit what's new_ and instead plasters on his most winning smile. “No trouble here, sir.”

“You are an excellent student, Lea.” Yen Sid tucks his hands beneath never-ending layers of robes.

“Um. Thanks.”

“Walk with me,” Yen Sid implores, and waves at Lea to follow him. Lea refrains from groaning and begins trailing after his mentor, the grass rippling in Yen Sid’s wake. As is always the case when Yen Sid hangs around, the stars shine differently, like the moon covered them all with tinfoil just so they’d shine a little bit brighter.

“As I was saying, you are an excellent student, Lea. Dedicated, if not lazy at times. A quick learner. You think outside the box, which is a wonderful ability to have. Many great Keyblade wielders of the past found their success in their power to both be creative and think independently.” Yen Sid pauses, a smile wrinkling his ancient face. “However.”

“Yeah. I don’t follow a technique, I don’t listen, yeah, yeah. No disrespect, but I’ve kind of heard it all before. Riku’s pretty open with criticism.”

Yen Sid holds out a hand. Even the crickets stop chirping. “My boy, your biggest problem is that you are an astounding failure at listening.”

 “Um.”

“Do not take this as a criticism,” Yen Sid chuckles. “Merely advice. Your friends are not here to harm, but help. Roxas, while perhaps asleep, still exists. That man in the castle with the scar across his temple may not be the boy you once knew, but be hesitant to count him as lost. Even the girl lingers.”

“What…” Lea splutters. “Excuse me, but what the hell?”

“Language,” Yen Sid retorts lazily. Above them, the darkness seems almost comforting, like the black of burnt toast or the fur of an animal, but Lea feels anything but comfortable.

“Whatever. How… _what_ … how did you even know Isa was here?”

“There are answers in everything,” Yen Sid replies, eyes twinkling.

“Sure. Um, yeah, sure. Listen, Isa isn’t gonna do anything. I brought him here so he could get some rest. He just… I’m the only person who even… and hold on, Roxas?”

“Believe me, I do not mind. I do not judge the damaged nor the damned. But, boy, my advice.” Yen Sid leans close, and the nighttime greenery around them disappears. Worlds shimmer in Yen Sid’s eyes. “Nothing is ever gone, but everything is breakable. Be careful where you tread, Lea. Your friends must rest.”

“Look, believe me, I already know all that. I don’t mean to be disrespectful,” Lea adds hurriedly, “but I know Isa, and hell, I basically _raised_ Roxas and Xion. I’ve been trying to bring them back…”

Yen Sid sighs and places a hand on Lea’s shoulder, and the worlds disappear. Lea feels the earth shift beneath his feet, yielding and uneasy.

“My boy,” Yen Sid says. His whisper aligns galaxies. “Listen.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The image of Yen Sid sipping pina coladas in a lawn chair was too great to resist. My apologies. 
> 
> Also, while I toyed with having Riku be the one to oversee Lea and Kairi's training, I ultimately decided that post KH-III Riku would have different responsibilities in this fic. More on that later. 
> 
> So where are Xion and Roxas? Good question. My theory (y'know, before KH-III comes out and all that) is that the presence of Ventus in Sora's heart formed a part of Roxas. In this fic, Roxas has not yet been able to separate from Sora's heart, as he's basically a product of Sora and Ventus. Ventus is alive and well but tearing Roxas out of Sora's heart could harm both Ventus and Sora's souls. And Xion does not really have a body of her own quite yet. So they're both kind of chilling in Sora's heart until the RG scientists can figure out how to separate them from Sora without hurting anybody, I guess. 
> 
> A more accurate summary of this chapter would be - Yen Sid tells Lea to be careful with his friends and work at their pace. Lea, as always, ignores valuable advice. Meanwhile, Xehanort continues to fuck with Isa's head even after he's dead and gone. 
> 
> cheers :)


	3. Chapter 3

His name disappears first. Isa clutches a pen between his fingers, a blank sheaf of paper spread out over his lap, while a man with fiery red hair stands off to the side talking to him about… about…

“Anyways, I thought maybe keeping a journal would help,” the man who looks like fire says, eyes glittering. Isa represses a shudder, but immediately wonders why he trembled.

“You know, write down whatever you know, or whatever you have questions about, and I’ll answer them.” He waits. Isa studies the burns that cover his forearms and realizes that this man was once truly made of fire. “Isa?” the man asks, and Isa glances down at the blank paper again. Something catches at the edges of his mind, but when he reaches out, he finds nothing.

“Um, if you think it’s stupid, you don’t have to do it. Sorry, I just… I told Ienzo it was a stupid idea, but you know him, he never listens, so…” The Fire Man stands up, looking slightly red. He reaches for the paper, but Isa tugs it away and holds the sheaf close to his chest.

“Thank you,” Isa replies. The paper feels grainy against his fingers. “I like it.” He doesn’t know how he feels about it, but it is a gift, and _in our family, gifts are freely given out of love, Isa._

“Oh,” the man replies, and he runs a hand through that tangle of red, “Oh. Um. That’s good. I mean, you’re welcome. Um. I have to leave, you know, I got a sparring session with Kairi, you know. You know Kairi, right?” Isa focuses on the paper. Who the hell is Kairi?

“So yeah, anyways, I’ll come see you. Later. You know,” the man ends awkwardly, and with a last glance at the journal on Isa’s lap, he turns to leave. Just as the man starts to sweep the bedroom door shut, Isa remembers _your manners, Isa, please use your manners, are you an animal?_

“Wait.”

The man appears back in the doorway, that same glimmer in his eyes. Isa doesn’t shudder this time. “Yeah?”

“What’s your name?”

Something shadowy, something unexplainable, passes over the man’s face and settles there. Isa feels a terrible thing push and pull at his stomach, and his heart beats quick, the kind of quick that he hates.

The man’s next word is quiet. “Lea.”

Isa nods, and although his stomach screams at him to stop, to stop, _got it memorized? I wanna live forever_ to stop, he cannot. “Thank you.”

The man’s mouth opens like he wants to say something, but he’s a fish under water, and after a moment he bites his bottom lip. “Yeah. You’re welcome.”

When he leaves, Isa vomits into the trash can at his bedside.

 

 

The next morning Isa remembers Lea. They grew up together, they ate dinner at each other’s houses every Thursday night, they were best friends. These are facts. Isa rubs his pen against the first page of his journal and begins drawing a star in the top right corner. Everything feels gray. Nothing tears at his stomach again, but nothing makes his heart beat in the way he likes, either.

Next to the star, he writes Lea’s name, and ticks lines down the page. Next to each line he writes something he knows, something about Lea, and when he finishes, he’s filled half of a page.

He feels nothing.

 

           

Isa does not leave his room for five more days. On the sixth day, he puts his journal in the drawer beside his desk and opens the door slowly, cautiously, as if he was about to walk in a portal of darkness without a cloak _for your own protection,_ and who knows, perhaps he is? The cold hardwood floors burns his bare feet. He makes it down two flights of stairs before he falls to the floor, panting. His legs shake. He wonders how long he’s been asleep.

 

 

Lea finds him, knees drawn up to his chest, sitting in the hallway where Sora stays whenever he comes to Radiant Garden to visit Kairi. His greasy blue hair hangs about his shoulders, too long and tangled; his eyes stare off at nothing. Lea sits next to him. The floor croaks under their combined weight.

“I remember,” Isa chokes hoarsely. “There’s too much…” He lifts his head, his eyes the clearest they’ve been since they were teenagers. His scar gleams red and irritated, fingernail marks trailing past his cheeks. “There’s too much, Lea.” Isa takes a ragged breath, one that makes Lea’s stomach knot itself. “What happened?”

_What happened to you? What happened to the Organization? What happened to us?_ Questions dance through Lea’s mind, but he sweeps them off the metaphorical table and instead murmurs, “It’s okay.”

Isa’s body shakes, and when Lea places a hand on his shoulder, he feels the chill sweeping through Isa’s skin, as cold as if they were still Nobodies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Isa's memories change and shift a lot. Post-Xehanort Isa is like a piece of clay tbh. Some days he remembers, other days he forgets. Three cheers for recovery amirite?


	4. Until We Find Our Hearts Repeating

Isa fills out every page of his small journal in a week. Spiraling scrawls cover each grainy page, many questions and few memories. Every day Isa remembers something new and every day he forgets something else.

When he hands the journal to Lea, Lea does nothing but stare at it.

“You finished it?” he asks, sounding incredulous.

“Yes,” Isa says, and he does not know why his hands shake. He folds them together _hands together, Isa, hands together, the congregation is watching_ and eyes Lea attentively.

Lea thumbs through the first few pages. He closes the journal and sets it next to him on the armchair. Silence passes. Isa is sure that Lea is angry.

Finally, Lea looks up and stares Isa straight in the eyes. Electricity meets a raging ocean. “I want to be sure,” he says, “that you want this.”

“Yes.”

Lea pauses, hesitation creasing on his forehead. “I want to make sure that you want it for you.”

The wind blows through Isa, spinning him around and around and around _and when he hits the ground, Lea starts laughing, and although pain burns through Isa’s arm he can’t help but laugh too_ and Isa nods. “Yes.”

“Okay,” Lea replies. The shadows under his eyes are darker than ever. “Okay.”

 

 

Lea spends hours pouring over Isa’s journal, over pages wrinkled and smudged with ink and oil, only to find that he needs an entirely new journal just to write all of his answers to Isa’s questions.

Many of his inquiries are about Isa’s childhood in Radiant Garden. Others ask after Lea. And a few speak of Xemnas, although Isa clearly doesn’t remember his name; Lea leaves these questions blank, unsure of how to answer. He doesn’t want to drag Isa’s memories out of the grave. But he doesn’t want to leave Isa in the dark, either. God knows he’s had enough of that.

So he answers nearly every question, his surprisingly neat handwriting running parallel to Isa’s shaky scrawl. The first night, Lea writes so much that he only finishes three pages of Isa’s questions. The questions capture his every thought.   Something quiet yet strong hums in Lea’s chest, and he sees the stains left by tears before he actually feels them trail down his cheeks.

 

 

Isa dreams, but when he wakes, he does not remember what he dreams about. It does not bother him. He knows they were nightmares.  He will remember them later. 

Every morning he makes his way cautiously down the long, spiraling staircase to the smallest kitchen in the castle, where he drinks watery coffee and eats a single slice of toast. A window looks out to the east of Radiant Garden, where Isa watches the brilliant sunrise approach over wild hills and the scaffolding of the city. It all feels simple. Isa appreciates it.

A girl – who Isa later remembers as Kairi – joins him for breakfast every morning. They never eat in silence. Kairi talks about everything and nothing at all, while Isa stares at her usual omelette and wonders where he’s heard that voice before. Isa divides everyone in the castle into three categories – those he knows he should know, those he thinks he should know, and those he knows he’s never met before. Kairi falls into the second category.

 The rays of light catch and shimmer on Kairi’s hair. Unbidden, a memory swims to Isa through a haze, one that _down by the stream, Izi. Please follow your sister, don’t get lost, and do not go swimming this time, do you understand, Izi_ and then it disappears again, and Isa resumes studying the way the light dances on Kairi’s scalp.

“What’re you looking at?” asks Kairi. She breaks off in the middle of a story about two boys that fall in the category of people Isa knows he’s never met before. Her fork hovers above her generous pile of scrambled eggs.

Nothing is what Isa means to say, but his thoughts are dancing with his tongue, and he says, “The sun.”

Kairi blinks, and for a moment, looks as if she’s about to laugh. But then her fork breaks against her plate. “It’s weird, huh? Everything red kind of glows in the light, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” Isa manages. He stares out the window where the city begins its process of waking. “Yes.”

Kairi waits a minute before speaking. She is the only one who believes Isa has any more to say. “It’s been hard,” she half-whispers, as if she’s talking to herself. “There are things I can’t forget and the worst part is, I don’t know if I want to forget them. Everybody wants me to…” Kairi sets her fork next to her plate. “Everybody wants me to be queen.” The sunlight strips away her age and leaves behind a child. “But I didn’t even grow up here.”

           

Kairi is the first to take Isa outside the Castle. She leads him through the gardens he grew up in, and although they’ve changed, Isa recognizes the bricks below his feet and the barren fruit trees on the outer ring. He used to play here _hi my name’s lea what’s yours do you go to school here my mom says that i’m going to be a_ with Lea when they were children. And although his memory is unable to summon specifics, his haze of recognition is enough to keep him walking.

“Lea said it used to be beautiful here,” Kairi says, her low voice the sister of a quiet morning. “He said they used to plant a bunch of flowers in the spring.”

“Yes, they did,” Isa murmurs. He steps over the remains of a broken clay pot.

“I want to make it beautiful again,” Kairi continues. “It’s what I’m working on right now. Cairn – he’s my advisor, although I didn’t pick him – says it’s stupid to worry about the gardens when Radiant Garden’s people are missing, and I guess he’s right, but… is it that stupid to have something beautiful for once?” Kairi pauses. The morning breeze hums, as if waiting for her command.

“I like it.”

Kairi turns, and Isa is as surprised as her to hear himself speak. But he continues. “I think…” But the words die in midair.

A smile spreads over Kairi’s face. _The heart always knows what words cannot say, Izi._ She looks up towards the castle, where the bricks shine in the sun’s embrace.

“I would love if you’d help me,” she says, slowly. “To remember the kinds of flowers that they used to plant and the way they used to plant them. I need some help with that.”

Isa stares at his feet. He notices a small, withered flower petal clinging to the leather of his boot. The wind whistles, and the petal vanishes on its breath, blowing up towards the trees.

“I’d like that.”

 

 

Lea shares more memories with the apprentices than he’s comfortable with. He tries his best to avoid Even, slipping through castle hallways and losing himself in rooms he’s never seen before. It’s funny, he thinks, that he spent his childhood trying to get into the castle, and now all he wants to do is get out.

Ienzo always finds him. Ienzo and his strange mind, the way he talks in a rush of words all at once, the way darkness settles on his shoulders like he’s never dropped the Organization cloak. Ienzo never says anything. Instead he stands in front of Lea, always offering a hand.

One day, however, he drops to the floor beside Lea.

“Stop following me.”

“Then stop running away.”

“I’m not running. And you should stop using those portals. You know that they’re made of darkness, right?”

 Ienzo sighs, a light laugh echoing in his intake of breath. “After all this time, do you really believe that it matters?”

Lea doesn’t answer. He stares at his boots, scuffed beyond repair and twice as dirty. The darkness hangs above them. Something acrid burns at his nose.

“I needed to speak with you about an urgent matter.” Ienzo’s tongue stirs at a torrent. “I thought it best to bring it to you before I am forced to go to the Keybearers.”

“Last I checked, I was one of ‘em.”

 Ienzo sighs, dark circles under his eyes stark against skin untouched by the sun. “The darkness in Radiant Garden is growing.”

“Sounds familiar.”

“Lea, this is important.” Ienzo’s hands wrap around his clipboard until his knuckles bleed white. “This world is still in an infant stage. If the darkness tips the balance once more, then it may perhaps disappear altogether.”

“So go bother Sora. Sounds more like his line of work.”

Ienzo’s voice drops. “I do not have to ask you to try and understand the significant amount of bias that Sora and his company hold against those… _touched_ by the darkness.”

“What’re you saying?”

“The ‘to any lengths’ philosophy is a dangerous one, Lea.”

Lea pulls himself to his feet, weighed down by the stones in his soul. What he’d do for a six-hour nap right about now. “When it gets to be a problem, let me know.”

“It’s a problem now,” Ienzo insists. His voice cuts through the darkness like a knife. “I’ll remind you that the last time darkness arrived in Radiant Garden and our authority failed to take care of it, we shaved thirteen years off of our lives.”

Lea gives Ienzo a _look._ “Well, hopefully this time, our _authority_ isn’t sticking their noses in any sketchy shit.” He draws out the sentence, tone burning with mockery.

Ienzo purses his lips. “You would do well to heed my warning.”

“Currently heeding a lot of things right now,” Lea says over his shoulder, brushing against the doorframe. “Don’t think there’s any room left.”

“The innocent blood will not be on my hands.”

“Wow, that’s a first,” Lea retorts. He barely notices the twitch of Ienzo’s right hand.

_The fire dances off the cobblestones. It’s hotter than hell, but Axel walks straight through it. It stopped trying to burn him awhile ago._

_Something cracks beneath his foot. He pulls back his boot. The ash-covered white of a bone brittle from the blazing heat crumbles onto the earth. Axel tips his head to the side, tries to register anything other than mild interest, and strolls onward._

_The smell of burning wood disguises the reek of the bodies. It’s funny, Axel thinks, how the bones all look the same. What was it, what was the difference between an adult’s skeleton and a child’s? They learned it in anatomy. Isa made Lea recite every bone in the body at least five times so he’d pass some stupid quiz. Oh, right. Two hundred and seventy for a kid’s skeleton and two hundred and six for an adult’s. Funny how they look the same._

_The well in the center of the small town stands tall amidst still-smoldering ashes. Axel takes a seat on the edge and pulls a pack of cigarettes from one of his cloak’s pocket. It isn’t until he puts the cigarette to his lips that he notices the blood staining the sleeves of his coat. He looks down at his chest. Something pink is stuck in his coat’s zipper._

_It’s funny, he thinks, because he can throw up, but he doesn’t really know why._

Lea opens his eyes to a cold floor and sweaty palms.

“You _motherfucker_ ,” he spits at Ienzo, who adopts an expression nearly as empty as his Nobody’s once was. The fire roars in Lea’s stomach, and before he knows what’s he’s doing, he lunges.

Ienzo barely has to move a muscle to send Lea to the floor. The weight of a spell marries Lea’s spine to the wood.

As he steps over Lea’s arm on the way to the door, he pauses. “I am not your enemy, Lea. I’m sorry.”

Lea spits a curse into the empty air.

           

The sun shines down on Isa’s back. Sweat runs rivers down his face and neck. His hands and feet, covered in dirt, blister and ache.

He hasn’t felt this alive in over thirteen years.  

He thrusts the shovel back into the ground and revels in the dirt it spills on the ground above. A carton of flowers sits beside a rake off to the side. A low hum spills upon the gardens, and Isa pauses to listen. It takes him a moment to realize that the humming noise comes from his own lips.

           

 

_“You gotta promise.”_

_“This is disgusting.”_

_"Whatever. Stop being a pussy. Promise," Lea says.  The blood from their wrists drips from their arms onto the ground, painting the bricks of Lea’s walkway red._

_“I promise.”_

_“That’s forever, y’know. Can’t go back on me now.”_

_“Even if I did, you’d probably follow me. You’re annoying like that.”_

_One wolfish grin, two sets of bright eyes full of future, and three promises long forgotten meet on a walkway in early July. Their summer is the summer of youth and a glorious lack of responsibility. They plan to live it to its fullest._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i mean Lea didn't get the title of the organization's assassin for nothing

**Author's Note:**

> i literally love isa so much. if nomura doesn't let this poor boy L I V E 
> 
> (updates will be rather irregular)


End file.
